Treadmills are used e.g. for physical training and for rehabilitation and therapy, respectively. Such treadmills are described e.g. in DE 25 03 118 B2 and DE 42 38 252 C2. An endless moving belt running over two cylinders serves as a running surface in such treadmills.
Such treadmills are also used for therapeutic and rehabilitation purposes. For this purpose, additional belts have been used, which hold the user or the patient and which partially counterbalance the weight of his body so that the patient can safely walk on the moving belt.
These belts can e.g. be used for raising a patient to a suitable position from a wheelchair. The belt holding force of these holding means can simultaneously be adjusted such that the weight of the patient's body or the weight of the user's body is counterbalanced at least partially. Patients or users suffering e.g. from back injuries can train their walking ability in this way without having to bear the weight of their body. In the course of the therapy, various body weight loads can then be adjusted.
Such treadmills provided with the above-mentioned holding means are disadvantageous insofar as the body weight is counterbalanced once and the body load is adjusted once at the beginning of the use of the treadmill when a treatment is started, the adjusted values remaining constant during the individual treatment. The level on which the user is held can then no longer be changed. When the user or the patient is walking or running on the moving belt, this will, however, result in up and down movements of his body which cannot be compensated for by such holding means, since said holding means are adjusted to a constant level.